The autumn leaves are falling like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are always two cups at my table.

T’ang Dynasty poem

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~

Thursday, September 04, 2014

Analysis of Ronda Rousey's Throwing Skills in MMA

Ronda Rousey won her last fight in 16 seconds.

Below is an excerpt from an article that appeared BJJ Scout. The full post may be read here.

Ronda Rousey is an Elite Judoka

Being the first woman from the US to ever medal at the Olympics is no
small feat. Even as a pure judoka, her technique was very good. The
mechanics of her main throws are perfect with no errors and she was not a
crude “leg grabber”/wrestler type of judo stylist that tried to muscle
through with pickups and counters but rather to chain attacks,
constantly pressuring the weak plane.

Rousey uses combinations to target weak planes

Amazingly, Rousey has managed to apply uchimata/hip throws as her
main takedown in MMA. In general giving your back is suicide but because
of her combinations, trying to slip behind to suplex/drop for the
legs/get back hooks is not easy.

Her uchimata/kouchi/ouchi combination attack was devastating at the
elite judo level and at the MMA level where wrestling awareness is not
so prevalent for women(at least so far), it simply bamboozles her
opponents. Through her training , Rousey senses the weak plane moving
about her even when her back is turned and so far any attempt to
circle/replant once she locks on the clinch has been met with an
immediate throw response to the correct plane. It’s hard to see, but in
literally 1 second, she can “jab” you with kouchi/ouchi to probe where
the weak plane is moving and commit to the required throw.

Head Control is a Major Weapon

One big thing she guns for the moment the bell rings is to secure a
tie up of the head to mimic her left handed judo grips. Once she grabs
the head, her right hand is quickly switching between knee pick/wrist
control/underhook depending on her opponent’s reaction. Her cage
awareness is excellent, and she expertly backs up the fleeing opponent
into the cage where she can go for the best grip. When she gets to
connect her hands (left hand head tie and underhook on the right) it’s
pretty much game over as she can go right into her hip throw/kouchi
setup.